Apple has announced financial results for its fiscal 2019 fourth quarter, which ended on September 28, and posted quarterly revenue of $64 billion – an increase of 2 per cent from the same quarter in the previous year. The Tim Cook-led company saw a mixed performance in terms of hardware sales (iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and Mac computers), but its subscription services revenue reached an all-time high of $12.5 billion. The company said that its international sales accounted for 60 per cent of the quarter’s revenue.
‘We concluded a groundbreaking fiscal 2019 with our highest Q4 revenue ever, fueled by accelerating growth from Services, Wearables, and iPad. With customers and reviewers raving about the new generation of iPhones, today’s debut of new, noise-cancelling AirPods Pro, the hotly-anticipated arrival of Apple TV+ just two days away, and our best lineup of products and services ever, we’re very optimistic about what the holiday quarter has in store,’ Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said in a statement.
As mentioned, the company had a mixed response in hardware sales. The iPhone – which many consider as the face of the company – brought in $33.36 billion in revenue as compared to $36.76 billion last year (approx 9.2 per cent drop). Mac computers revenue was $6.99 billion, which is a 5 per cent drop year-over-year. On the contrary, the sales of iPads, wearables, and other accessories saw a jump. The iPads contributed revenue of $4.65 billion and Apple’s wearables/accessories posted revenue of $6.52 billion in this quarter.
Citing Cook, Reuters reported that the sales of the new iPhone 11 Series are off to a ‘very, very good start’ because of the company’s strategy to launch the iPhone 11 at a starting price of $699. Reportedly, the pricing has helped the Cupertino-based tech giant to reach out to new users in India as well. The iPhone 11 starts at Rs 64,999 in India, which is considerably low as compared to the iPhone XR that was unveiled at a starting price of Rs 76,900 last year.
As per a report, the new phones have been a hit in India, as dealers struggled with supplies due to the high demand in the festival season. Cook said that the company had picked ‘locally relevant prices’, which essentially means that the company priced the phones in such a way that it was effective for a particular market or persuaded people of that market to purchase new iPhones. All eyes are now on the next quarter results that will include revenue that Apple made during the festive season in India and will make during Christmas and New Year globally.
When it comes to the services business, Apple posted a record high of $12.5 billion as compared to $11.46 billion in the last quarter and $10.6 billion in the fourth quarter of the last year. Apple claims that it now has ‘over 450 million paid subscriptions across the services’ on its platform, compared to over 330 million a year ago. Apple services include Apple TV, Apple Music, and Apple Arcade games, which was launched in September.
Image credits: Apple
